Welcome to Leverage Blog, a marketing resource for startups, small businesses and nonprofit organizations searching for success in the brave new world of internet marketing.

March 15, 2012

Pinterest has been growing, rapidly, as the graph shows. If you're not familiar already, it's a site where users can create "pinboards" - groups of images that may or may not have a common theme. Tumblr is a bit more versatile, but the idea is similar.

eMarketer's Kimberly Maul says "“The platform works especially well for media companies, which can post their own content as well as supplemental photos and quotes. This has attracted brands such as The Atlantic, Rolling Stone and The Huffington Post. And fashion brands, including Oscar de la Renta and J.Crew, are leveraging the easy photo-sharing opportunities to include images of products, shots from fashion shows and more.”"

November 08, 2011

Looking for some useful tips on how to incorporate humor into work-related situations, without risking your job?

It might be worth doing some more research into understanding how jokes work, but this post on smartblogs.com is a good primer. I think it's especially relevant to advertising. Think of how many 30-second TV spots manage to be funny, not by spelling something out, but by surprising you, or letting you make your own connection, or both.

Take a look at the post - and, of course, if you like your job, follow the advice and stay away from jokes about race, religion, or sexual orientation.

April 21, 2010

According to SmartBrief, 'Twitter
usage exploded in 2009. U.S. site traffic, which is only a partial barometer of
how many people used the service, grew from a few million unique monthly
visitors in early 2009 to more than 20 million by June. Traffic has since
reached a plateau, but other usage metrics continue to show high levels of
engagement in early 2010. The service is now well integrated into the
social-media mainstream, and usage levels are expected to continue rising,
albeit more moderately, through 2012. To find out more about digital marketing
and eMarketer's report "Twitter: A Strong Current in the Social Media
Mainstream," click here.'

Another important factor to consider is how active all of those accounts are. The distribution of Twitter posts is pretty interesting to read about. From what I've read, the great majority of tweets come from a very small but vocal minority, and the majority of accounts in the system only post once or twice a month.

November 20, 2009

It might seem counterintuitive at first, but it may be that one of the best marketing approaches might be producing content that isn't directly related to your company.

"Zappos, for instance, operates
blogs and posts third-party content about everything from parenting
and skateboarding to running. All that content helps it bubble up
in search results not necessarily tied to products."MediaWeek.com

There's already so much content online that it's difficult to even comphrehend the volume of information - but that's not likely to change anytime soon. In fact, the article on MediaWeek.com uses the term "virtual content arms race." If volume of original content leads to sales, then naturally the overall volume of content is going to rise, and the pace is going to rise as things get increasingly more competitive.

November 18, 2009

Q309 is a valuable keyword - so valuable, in fact, that it's going for nearly a hundred dollars a click. The article on MediaPost.net mentions a few other high-priced keywords as well.

If you're not familiar with the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising model, read our post: Pay-Per-Click online advertising: What is it?In that post you'll see we mentioned prices range from ten cents to "over $13.00" - but we're seeing the bidding get progressively more competitive.

May 13, 2008

ROPV is an alternative perspective on the current economic, political and cultural environment in Russia
today. In-depth news, research, interviews and more inform academics, analysts and everyone interested in following the growth of Russia.

Our services included the creation of a design to meet client preferences, custom programming to enable the posting of images, articles and files within the blog's pages, and training to enable the CCI team to maintain and grow their blog. Unique features include email subscriptions to help drive traffic to the blog, and a search tool to enable visitors to find information on topics of interest.

Congrats to CCI for their introduction of a new voice in media coverage of Russia.

April 18, 2006

One key to growth is anticipating the needs of your customers. While it can be a challenge to figure out exactly what new service or product they might need, we can safely say everyone likes information.

The business that educates and informs is often the most trusted, and trust wins clients. Blogs are a pretty easy way to provide that information and build trust. To see if your customers want you blogging, think about the questions they ask...

...and then answer them, in your blog, one post at a time.

Still not sure how a blog can grow your business? Email me. Let's dive-in.

April 11, 2006

Four cheers for Cyd Kmeto, a counselor, personal-coach and guru (no exaggeration) in Sacramento, CA. A long-time client of Wheel Media, Cyd approached me looking for a new website. The conversation went thusly:

Michael: A new site is a great idea. Have you thought about creating a blog?

Cyd: A what?

Michael: A blog. A blog is a new kind of website that enables the author to add new content as often as they like without fancy hi-tech skills. Visitors can
post comments to your ideas, and you become the hub of a conversation (online)centered on your work. The world needs to know what you do...and of course many of those people will become clients. Exciting stuff, no?

Cyd: [puzzled look]

Michael: [optimistic, encouraging look]

Cyd: OK, this sounds interesting. Give it to me one more time...

The rest is history. Well, the future. The future of small business. The website and blog compliment each other, cross-market and encourage visitors to come back.
The website is richer in design, the blog in content.

Our blog marketing strategy is one part planning, one part execution, and one part maintenance. I've trained Cyd on the art of blogging and she's running the show now. Read her at Move Inside and learn more about her counseling practice at www.cydkmeto.com.

March 31, 2006

I've heard it a 100 times, and it's a great question. Blogs are the "latest thing," but why does your business need one?

Truth be told, blogs are not always my first recommendation. Many times I recommend other tactics before embarking on a blog marketing project; an email newsletter or a snappy refreshing of the website are sometimes the best places to start. But that said, here are three reasons why a blog needs to at least be on your marketing radar. The more these resonate with your business, the more a blog can help you:

Blogs inform your customer

Your blog tells your customer more about your product/service, how to use it, how it's changing, how it affects their world. And your blog invites their feedback.

Blogs help keep your company top-of-mind

With new information posted (nearly) every day your customers have a reason to remember you, to visit you, to check your RSS feed. And being top-of-mind is key to grabbing up-sells and referrals.

Blogs help take price out of the discussion

There is always going to be someone with a lower price. Always. But the personal connection on a blog, the opportunity to build a relationship with a customer, builds loyalty and trust. Go ahead, raise your prices, increase your margins. It's possible.

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